Wednesday 29 January 2014

$108-billion Indian IT industry enters 'middle age', advantage lost

The 3-mn-strong IT workforce is getting older, making it harder to extract some of the cost advantages of the young, cheap labour. 
The executive suite is not the only place that is greying in India's 40-year-old IT industry. As the $108-billion industry enters middle age and its growth slows, the three-million-strong workforce is also getting older, making it harder to extract some of the cost advantages of the young, cheap labour for which it is known.

Firms have had to change in order to attract and support employees with a more mature set of priorities, as the bright youngsters they recruited years earlier have become earnest family types.

"Middle-aged or married couples prefer to go back home on time, so don't like to stay back at work till late or do weekends," said Megha Jain, 34, a Bangalore-based employee of an Indian IT company. "There is more focus by the company to fine-tune policies around work from home and overtime."

LESS PARTYING, MORE PARENTING

The likes of Bangalore-based Infosys and

Wipro were built on a young, cheap and educated workforce that also drew global giants such as IBM Corp and Accenture to the country.

And the vibrancy of the new industry was epitomised by a corporate culture that was far more influenced by Silicon Valley than traditional Indian attitudes.

In India, many in their first jobs continue to live with parents, whereas working in IT often meant moving to another city, such as Bangalore, Hyderabad or Pune.

Organised weekend outings for staff were a common way of building bonds in the workplace for IT firms whose employees had mostly come straight from college.

Some firms also gave employees free movie tickets and let them expense meals with boyfriends or girlfriends.

Flush with money and new-found independence, these IT staffers were known both for working late and partying hard.   Read more..


From TFE News

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